In prior art telecommunication switching systems comprising a plurality of stored program controlled switching nodes, each switching node requires predefined knowledge of the internal configuration of the switching node and predefined information defining how calls are to be routed through the telecommunication switching system. With respect to information defining an individual switching node, the central processor controlling a switching node maintains software tables, commonly called translation tables, which specify the overall node configuration including individual switching modules within the switching node, types of cabinets, types of circuit boards within those cabinets, and the types of interfaces employed. In addition, the translation tables include information which specifies every switching node and interface link interconnected with the switching node. This information has to be specified before initialization of a switching node.
As far as interfaces are concerned, the translation tables defire the type of interface, switching node or system to which the interface is ultimately connected, and the purpose of the interface. Everything is controlled by the central processor. For instance, if an interface is marked as being in service in the translation tables, the central processor attempts to put that interface into service by trying to initialize the interface and have the interface bring up the lower level protocols. In addition, the translation tables define the telephone numbers of individual telephones connected to the system as well as the services provided to those telephones.
The problem with predefined translation tables is one of inflexibility within the system. Since the switching node has predefined information of what interfaces should be available, the switching node always attempts to bring these interfaces up and cannot readily adapt to a new interface being attached to the switching node or link becoming active without human intervention by a system administrator. Within isolated switching nodes which are providing telecommunications service for one group of persons, this problem of inflexibility is one that can be resolved by a system administrator. However, in a large telecommunication system comprising a large number of switching nodes, the problem of having to prespecify each interface and link greatly reduces the flexibility and usability of such a telecommunications switching system. The reason is that each time a new link with corresponding interfaces becomes active on two switching nodes the link can only be utilized after system administrators on each switching node have entered the proper information into the translation tables. In general, this requires that each switching node within the telecommunication system have its translation tables altered to account for this new link, so that the link may be utilized by all switching nodes for routing calls. More importantly, the system administrator on each switching node must anticipate the loss of any link and predefine alternate routes to reflect the loss of a link, since the switching nodes have no flexibility in determining other routes on their own accord through the telecommunications switching system. Furthermore, the routing must be coordinated across all switching nodes in order to avoid circular routes or "dead ends" routes in any scenario. This makes the translation process very complex and error prone.